Gatineau rugby player hopes for Olympic call

Natasha Watcham-Roy is sitting on pins and needles these days. But that’s a whole lot better to deal with than the two separate injuries and rehab stints she had to endure during a recent six-month stretch.

Or so you would think.

Two months after helping Canada win the women’s sevens rugby gold medal at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto, the Gatineau athlete was sidelined with back-to-back lower-body injuries. She was out of action for three months each time, first with an undisclosed knee injury and then with an injury she politely refused to discuss. That meant plenty of rehab, selective training and a good dose of worry as she missed Canada’s first four of five tournaments in the world rugby women’s sevens series with an Olympic team berth for the 2016 Rio Summer Games on the line.

But when she returned to full health in April, she was assigned to play for Canada’s Maple Leafs developmental team in the London Sevens Invitational. After that, Canadian team head coach John Tait declared her fit to join the main team for the final Rugby world women’s sevens series tournament in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Canada defeated Australia 29-19 in the final in France to finish the season in third place behind champion Australia and New Zealand.

“It’s not the greatest time (to be injured) in the middle of the season, but I was lucky to make it back for the last series,” Watcham-Roy said in an interview during a one-week break in Gatineau, after the Clermont-Ferrand tournament.

Less than two months before rugby sevens makes its debut and the sport of rugby returns as a sport to the Olympics (the 15s game was played four times between 1900 and 1924), Watcham-Roy is nervous about the Olympic team announcement, when she’s not training hard.

“I’m anxiously awaiting,” added the former University of Ottawa Gee-Gees 15s captain. “All I can do is keep training (in Victoria) and be the best I can be. We’re all getting ready for Rio no matter what. We don’t know. It all comes out soon.”

There are 23 women vying for 12 spots — nine form the core of the team, while the other 14 are focused on the final three spots. But Watcham-Roy, who attacks and sees the field well, sets up tries from her hooker/back position and is a strong defender, has a solid chance to make her first Olympic team. Women’s rugby sevens is slated for Aug. 6-8.

Watcham-Roy played in all six games in each of the London and Clermont-Ferrand tournaments. In Clermont-Ferrand, she was in the starting lineup for the opening game against Japan and the semifinal versus England. She also made her first national team last year for the Pan Am Games in Toronto as Canada won gold.

While the Ottawa Fury men’s soccer team will be engaged in its North American Soccer League fall season, team owner John Pugh also will be keeping an eye on the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

The founder of one of the most successful, but now defunct, W-League teams has two alumni on the Canadian women’s Rio-bound soccer team and four, if you want to be totally accurate.

Matheson and Wilkinson have both played with the national team since 2003 and spent four developmental seasons each during their university summers with the Fury between 2003-07. They are two of Canada’s most experienced players, ranking second and third on the team in career international caps at 183 for Matheson and 175 for Wilkinson. In terms of offensive assists, Wilkinson is second on the team at 22 and Matheson, who scored the game-winning goal in the bronze-medal game at the 2012 Olympics, is third at 20.

Buchanan and Lawrence played one game each for the Fury in the club’s final W-League season in 2014 before being called up to the Canadian women’s team to prepare for the FIFA U20 World Cup.

In 56 international caps for Canada, Buchanan, the winner of the best-young-player award at the 2015 Women’s World Cup, has three goals and two assists, while Lawrence has four goals and two assists in 38 games.

The only returning member of the Canadian synchro team from the 2012 London Olympics, Thomas has shifted to duet from team and will compete with the youngest squad member, Jacqueline Simoneau, 19, of Montreal.

Working with acting coach Sebastien David from the National Theatre School, Thomas said their free routine, which is called Heartbreak, will be revolutionary as it exudes emotion through facial expressions and is extremely artistic.

“We’re not going to look like we’re plastic dolls in the water,” Thomas said. “We want to look like we’re real people living something very real. It’s a heartbreak theme. And we want people in the audience to feel the way we feel.”

In 2015, Thomas and Simoneau won the Pan Am Games gold medal and had two top-10 results at the world championships.

TRACK AND FIELD EXCELLENCE

The spotlight found Ashbury’s Sharelle Samuel, St. Matthew’s Kiera Christie-Galloway, Gisele-Lalonde’s Leewinchell Jean and Longfield-Davidson Heights’ Shona McCulloch for different reasons at the recent OFSAA track and field championships in Windsor as National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association athletes won four gold, four silver and five bronze medals. Samuel was a gold medallist in girls’ junior 400 metres and long jump. Christie-Galloway set an OFSAA record in the girls’ senior 100-metre hurdles preliminaries at 13.33 seconds, breaking the mark set by former Olympian Perdita Felicien at 13.41, before winning the gold medal in the final and placing second in long jump. Jean was an accomplished boys’ midget hurdler, winning gold over 300 metres and silver in 100 metres. The girls’ senior 3,000 metres was the race of the championships. McCulloch set the Canadian interscholastic girls’ 3,000-metre record of 9:30.17 only seven days before the provincial championships. She threatened to lower it again, but the impressive time of 9:30.65 by the Grade 11 runner only earned her the bronze, as Christiane Konstantopoul of Toronto Prep School, 9:29.59, and Branna MacDougall of Regiopolis-Notre Dame in Kingston, 9:29.75, broke the 35-year-old OFSSA record and McCulloch’s national high school standard. The other NCSSAA medallists were: Glebe’s Mei Mei Weston, girls’ junior 3,000 metres, silver; St. Pius X’s Madison McLean, girls’ midget javelin, silver; Cairine Wilson’s Thomas Saville, open boys’ 2,000-metre steeplechase, bronze; South Carleton’s Shyvonne Roxborough, girls’ senior 100 metres, bronze; Rideau’s Wariso Dullo, boys’ javelin, bronze; and Longfield-Davidson Heights’ Megan Miaro, girls’ senior triple jump, bronze.

HIGH SCHOOL EXCITEMENT

Glebe’s Collegiate Institute’s Gillian Cross and Hayley Watt were double gold medallists at the Canadian Secondary School Rowing Association national championships, placing first in the senior women’s 2,000-metre double final and joining Maggie Hemphill and Katie Clarke to win the quad final … After winning five of its first six games at the OFSAA girls’ AA soccer championship, Cairine Wilson fell one victory short of its first provincial high school gold medal, losing the final 1-0 to Parkside of St. Thomas … The two-pronged OFSAA girls’ rugby championships produced two medals for Ottawa and area teams, a fitting farewell for co-convenor Rick Mellor, who is retiring as one of two NCSSAA athletic co-ordinators. St. Peter received two tries from Emma Crivello in a 26-19 win over St. Roch of Brampton for the girls’ AAA bronze medal, while Arnprior beat St. Mary’s of Owen Sound 26-15 for the girls’ A/AA bronze. Ashbury was the OFSAA boys’ A/AA bronze medallist with a 17-12 win over Streetsville.

PUNCHING IN

National team member Erica Adjei of Final Round Boxing posted a victory (defeating Tunisia’s Mariem Homrani 2-1) and a round-of-16 loss (falling to India’s Nikhat Zareen 3-0) in the 54-kg class during the world women’s amateur boxing championships last month. In April, Adjei won her second straight Canadian title. The former Beaver Boxing Club athlete was joined on the national championship medal podium by three Beaver fighters: Marja Curran, women’s elite 81 kg, silver; Clare Hafner, women’s elite 81-plus kg, silver; and Cedric Parina, men’s elite senior 56 kg, bronze.

KANATA GOLFER PREVAILS

The top qualifiers became the champions at the Ottawa Valley Golf Association open and senior men’s match play championships at eQuinelle Golf Club. Nicholas Brisebois of Kanata defeated Kurtis Barkley of Cedar Glen 6 and 5 for the open title, while Robert Irvine of Meadows turned back Perry Freda of Madawaska 3 and 1 in the senior final.

BASEBALL CHAMP

Pitcher/second baseman Tess Forman of Ottawa played a key role as undefeated Canada won the inaugural U20 Women’s International Cup for women’s baseball in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Forman, 16, had a two-run single in the 12-2 opening-game win over Cuba, pitched five solid innings in a 7-3 win over Mexico, and slammed an RBI double in the 11-1 mercy rule, semifinal victory over Mexico. Canada downed Dominican Republic 13-3 in the final.

LAST WORDS

National team cyclist Karol-Ann Canuel of Gatineau finished third in the women’s individual time trial at the Grand Prix Gatineau, while Annie Foreman-Mackey of Cyclery Opus of Ottawa was 10th. Mackey also was 10th in the road race … Patrice Dagenais of Embrun has been named to Canada’s Paralympic team for wheelchair rugby, while Ottawa’s Adam Dukovich has been selected to Boccia Canada’s national team and will be considered for the Paralympics … Joanna Brown of Carp finished second in the women’s race at the inaugural Major League Triathlon super sprint mixed relay competition for professionals and helped the four-athlete Sarasota Sun squad win the team title … Juliette Chapman of the Orleans-based Tumblers Gymnastics Club placed fourth all-around in the women’s novice national high-performance streaming class at the Canadian artistic gymnastics championships and was national champion in floor and second in beam, while teammate Avery Rosales was eighth all-around and fourth on floor. Ottawa Gymnastic Club’s Samuel Zakutney rebounded from a 12th overall in men’s senior all-around to earn two event-final medals — silver in parallel bars and bronze on high bar … Diane Dolan of the Hylands Golf Club placed sixth at the Ontario women’s senior and mid-amateur golf championships, shooting rounds of 81-81-76 for a 22-over-par 238 and finishing 13 strokes behind winner Judith Kyrinis of Thornhill … The Ottawa-Nepean Canadians 15U baseball team opened its Premier League season in eye-popping fashion, winning its first 15 games before losing its first game May 30. The Canadians are now 17-1. . . . University of Florida junior Shainah Joseph of Ottawa had her first major international experience as Canada lost all six games at tournaments in Poland and Czech Republic during the 24th Volleyball World Grand Prix. Joseph scored 31 points, including a team-high 20 points (18 spikes, two blocks) in the final 3-2 loss to Bulgaria on Sunday.

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